Private sector rents are falling in real terms according to government figures.

Data from the Office for National Statistics show that private rents rose by 1.2 per cent in the 12 months to June of this year.

This increase remains well below all measurements of inflation with the smallest increase, CPI including housing costs, being 2.4 per cent.

Private rents grew just 1.1 per cent in England and 1.5 per cent in Wales and 1.2 per cent in Scotland.

Regionally, whilst the East and West Midlands saw the highest annual growth in private rents at 2.4 per cent, London saw the lowest – rents in the capital fell by 0.1 per cent or 2.5 per cent in real terms.

The real terms fall in rents comes despite concerns about the demand for rental housing outstripping supply. Recent data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has pointed to rents increasing by 3.0 per cent over the next year as a result of the demand for homes to rent exceeding supply.

Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, says:

“[These] figures burst the myth that landlords are hiking rents by as much as possible and demonstrate that market forces are the biggest influence on rent levels. It is clear also that the trend of renters moving out of the capital in response to the pandemic continues.

“That said, demand for privately rent homes continues to outstrip supply and without further efforts to meet that demand, rents will continue to rise. The government needs a strategy that properly recognises the importance of a thriving private rented sector in which tenants have genuine choices over where they rent.”